Respect

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Sisemen

Respect

#1 Post by Sisemen » Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:08 am

Last night I MC’d the RAAFA WA Annual Dinner which also doubled as a RAF100 celebration.

I had the honour of chatting to a chap called John Lyall, one of the residents of the retirement village. After training as a W Op/Air Gunner he did a full tour as a rear gunner on Short Stirlings. After that tour he was posted to B17s on 100 Sqn doing radio countermeasures. Following that he requested, and got, another tour on 467 Sqn as a rear gunner on Lancasters.

He reckoned he was a “bit of a bolshie bastard” when he was younger and was worried about his treatment had he stuck one on to a German if he ever got shot down but, apart from that, he had “a jolly good time”!

He’s 95 and was one of the last 5 to leave the party last night!

Respect. ^:)^

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Re: Respect

#2 Post by ian16th » Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:14 am

Plus 1
Cynicism improves with age

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Re: Respect

#3 Post by Cacophonix » Sun Jun 24, 2018 2:17 pm

+1

Sounds like he could still give me hell!

I was WhatApp's this by my ex wife in South Africa.
I have just read an interesting article in the Sunday Times taken from the UK Sunday Telegraph about the Dambusters, the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre in East Kirkby and the Bastion in the Air exhibition. Also the International Bomber Command Centre on the outskirts of Lincoln which apparently opened in April. There is only one surviving Dambuster, aged 96.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Jo ... F_officer)

Soon all of that generation will be gone and who then will keep us sane then?

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Re: Respect

#4 Post by Cacophonix » Sun Jun 24, 2018 3:48 pm

Cacophonix wrote:
Sun Jun 24, 2018 2:17 pm
+1

Sounds like he could still give em hell!

I was WhatApp'd this by my ex wife in South Africa.
Dsylxaie rules Ok!

Caco

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Re: Respect

#5 Post by Slasher » Sat Jun 30, 2018 6:42 pm

Sisemen wrote:
Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:08 am
Last night I MC’d the RAAFA WA Annual Dinner which also doubled as a RAF100 celebration.
Sise was that at the Air Force Association out at Bullcreek?

Just wondering if the mounted Spit out the front and the Lanc are still there.

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Re: Respect

#6 Post by Rwy in Sight » Sat Jun 30, 2018 7:38 pm

A great respect for the people like him.

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Re: Respect

#7 Post by Sisemen » Sun Jul 01, 2018 5:25 am

Slasher wrote:
Sat Jun 30, 2018 6:42 pm
Sisemen wrote:
Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:08 am
Last night I MC’d the RAAFA WA Annual Dinner which also doubled as a RAF100 celebration.
Sise was that at the Air Force Association out at Bullcreek?

Just wondering if the mounted Spit out the front and the Lanc are still there.

Still there. Photos to follow (pron next week when I’m down there again).

Slasher

Re: Respect

#8 Post by Slasher » Mon Jul 02, 2018 4:15 pm

Sisemen wrote:
Sun Jul 01, 2018 5:25 am
Still there.
Great. I hear the Lanc is indoors now.

I helped in clearing the piccolo tubes of the Lanc's coolers at the back of her Merlins. I'd spent a month in Perth in the mid 80s and I'd got word that the Association needed volunteers to upkeep her restoration. Proud to've been a tiny part of it.

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Re: Respect

#9 Post by Woody » Thu Nov 07, 2019 10:45 am

On November 7th, 1920, in strictest secrecy, four unidentified British bodies were exhumed from temporary battlefield cemeteries at Ypres, Arras, the Asine and the Somme.

None of the soldiers who did the digging were told why.

The bodies were taken by field ambulance to GHQ at St-Pol-Sur-Ter Noise. Once there, the bodies were draped with the union flag.

Sentries were posted and Brigadier-General Wyatt and a Colonel Gell selected one body at random. The other three were reburied.

A French Honour Guard was selected and stood by the coffin of the chosen soldier overnight.

On the morning of the 8th November, a specially designed coffin made of oak from the grounds of Hampton Court arrived and the Unknown Warrior was placed inside.

On top was placed a crusaders sword and a shield on which was inscribed:

"A British Warrior who fell in the GREAT WAR 1914-1918 for King and Country".

On the 9th of November, the Unknown Warrior was taken by horse-drawn carriage through Guards of Honour and the sound of tolling bells and bugle calls to the quayside.

There, he was saluted by Marechal Foche and loaded onto HMS Vernon bound for Dover. The coffin stood on the deck covered in wreaths, surrounded by the French Honour Guard.

Upon arrival at Dover, the Unknown Warrior was met with a nineteen gun salute - something that was normally only reserved for Field Marshals.

A special train had been arranged and he was then conveyed to Victoria Station, London.

He remained there overnight, and, on the morning of the 11th of November, he was finally taken to Westminster Abbey.

The idea of the unknown warrior was thought of by a Padre called David Railton who had served on the front line during the Great War the union flag he had used as an altar cloth whilst at the front, was the one that had been draped over the coffin.

It was his intention that all of the relatives of the 517,773 combatants whose bodies had not been identified could believe that the Unknown Warrior could very well be their lost husband, father, brother or son...

THIS is the reason we wear poppies.

We do not glorify war.

We remember - with humility - the great and the ultimate sacrifices that were made, not just in this war, but in every war and conflict where our service personnel have fought - to ensure the liberty and freedoms that we now take for granted.

Every year, on the 11th of November, we remember the Unknown Warrior.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.

On the 11th November - we launch the The Warrior initiative, in honour of those 517,773
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Re: Respect

#10 Post by Woody » Tue Nov 12, 2019 9:54 am

A day late, but worth reading.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50347952
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Re: Respect

#11 Post by ian16th » Tue Nov 12, 2019 10:25 am

However, the Commission has recently managed to restore hundreds of graves at Habbaniya war cemetery, west of Baghdad in Iraq.


Can't remember the details, maybe Ricardian can.

The Boy Entrants Assoc. made contact with the USMC operating from Habbaniya and arranged for photos of a grave to be sent to family in the UK.
Cynicism improves with age

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Re: Respect

#12 Post by Woody » Tue Jan 14, 2020 2:05 pm

Century of Valour - Flypast

Following the fatal shooting down of Dambuster Guy Gibson's Mosquito on the night of 19th September 1944 over Holland, his personal effects were collected together at RAF Coningsby, where he was based, and dispatched to his family - Guy's father, sister Joan and brother Alex. Joan hung his uniform for several years in a wardrobe before deciding to remove his well-worn wings from the jacket and mount them in a picture frame together with a photo of her beloved brother.

Coming to the present day, an exhibition by Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire entitled A Century of Valour, will be highlighted by the display of Guy Gibson's Victoria Cross. The event will be spectacularly announced by a flypast of a Typhoon fighter from RAF Coningsby which will line up on the IBCC spire and fly over the centre of Lincoln and Usher Gallery at precisely 12 o'clock midday on Friday 24th January. Incredibly, the pilot will have a passenger accompanying him - Guy's well-worn RAF wings will also be on board.

This flight could be seen as the completion of Guy's last mission in 1944, finally returning home to base."

The wings will then be returned by RAF courier once the aircraft has landed and will be on display in the Gibson cabinet at the exhibition as of 25th January
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